Georgia Attorney General Hits 61 'Cop City' Protesters With Racketeering Charges
04:23 GMT 07.09.2023 (Updated: 04:41 GMT 07.09.2023)
© AP Photo / Brynn Anderson
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The proposed facility, dubbed "Cop City" by opponents, has been the cause of tensions for more than two years in Atlanta. In January, a protester was shot at least 57 times by police who claim they were fired on even though an autopsy revealed that the activist, Manuel Esteban Paez "Tortuguita" Teran, did not have gunpowder residue on his hands.
Sixty-one individuals who authorities say are involved in the Stop Cop City in Georgia movement were indicted on racketeering charges on Tuesday night, in a case civil liberty activists say has chilling implications for the First Amendment.
State prosecutors released the indictment late Tuesday, and in addition to racketeering charges also brings domestic terrorism and arson charges against organizers and participants in the Stop Cop City movement, which aims to prevent the construction of an 85-acre, $90 million training facility that includes a mock city.
Officially known as the Atlanta Public Safety Center, proponents of the facility say it will replace outdated and inadequate training facilities currently used by the Atlanta Police and other area law enforcement agencies. They argue that a large mock city is necessary to train recruits in scenarios they might come across during patrols; the facility plans to include a mock convenience store and nightclub.
But activists argue the training facility is unnecessary and expensive, will further militarize the police and remove the largest wooded area in Atlanta. Some activists have also worried that the facility will be used to train officers in quelling protests.
6 March 2023, 03:30 GMT
The charges were brought by State District Attorney General Chris Carr, who has hinted at a potential gubernatorial run in 2026, when current Republican Governor Brian Kemp’s term ends.
The indictment begins with a nearly five-page explainer on the “Anarchy Background of Defend the Atlanta Forest” that observers note reads more like a critical essay on the philosophy of anarchy than a criminal indictment. It includes an explainer of terms such as “mutual aid,” “collectivism” and “social solidarity.”
“These anarchist ideals and actions undergird the occupation of the forested area that will be the site of the Atlanta Public Training Center,” the section concludes.
Section two of the indictment lists 225 “overt act[s] in furtherance of the conspiracy” in which it says the racketeering occurred. At least 41 of the accounts relate to blog postings. Many others include providing food, money, or supplies to the protesters, most of the supplies listed are plainly legal, like tents and tarps. Some include receiving aid from the organization.
Bizarrely, one count includes an alleged conspirator signing his name as “ACAB.” It does not clarify when or where the individual signed his name as ACAB or how that act furthered the alleged conspiracy.
Part of the Indictment in the State of Georgia case against Stop Cop City protesters that includes RICO charges.
© Fulton County
ACAB is an acronym for “All Cops Are Bast**ds.”
Many of the indicted individuals were already facing charges related to the Stop Cop City movement, including more than three dozen who already face domestic terrorism charges. Five more individuals were charged with domestic terrorism in Tuesday’s indictment, along with first-degree arson charges.
Three of the leaders of the movement were also charged with money laundering, largely stemming from allegedly using funds from the Network for Strong Communities, a non-profit organization, to fund the protests. Authorities argue that donors were unaware their contributions would go towards funding allegedly illegal activities.
Interestingly, the indictment lists May 25, 2020, as the date the conspiracy started, long before the facility was proposed by the city. It is also the date George Floyd was murdered by police. Activists say this is an attempt to link the Stop Cop City movement and the larger movements against racial injustice and police violence, in an attempt to link and vilify both Stop Cop City and those movements.
Outside of the date, the text of the indictment also adds more credence to those claims. It spends a significant amount of space contending the Stop Cop Movement capitalized on the anger over the Floyd case and the police killing of Rayshard Brooks to recruit new members.
15 April 2023, 04:03 GMT
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) condemned the “unprecedented” indictment.
“We are extremely concerned by this breathtakingly broad and unprecedented use of state terrorism, anti-racketeering, and money laundering laws against protesters,” Aamra Ahmad, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s National Security Project. “Georgia law enforcement officials are disproportionately wielding these overbroad laws to stigmatize and target those who disagree with the government.”
Meanwhile, Governor Kemp praised the indictment, saying his “top priority is and always will be keeping Georgians safe, especially against out-of-state radicals that threaten the safety of our citizens and law enforcement.”
While the city council voted to approve the project, despite a record number of residents expressing their opposition to it, activists remain hopeful they will stop the project. Participants have been working on gathering signatures to get the issue on the ballot as a voter referendum. The group claims to have already collected 104,000 signatures, far above the 60,000 required, but they plan to gather more before submitting it as the city announced they will use signature matching.
Signature matching compares signatures to those on voter records, but it is controversial because minor discrepancies can be used to throw out otherwise valid signatures.
In 2018, the ACLU successfully sued the state of Georgia for rejecting nearly 600 absentee ballots for alleged mismatches.
“Chris Carr may try to use his prosecutors and power to build his gubernatorial campaign and silence free speech,” the Cop City Vote coalition said in a statement. “But his threats will not silence our commitment to standing up for our future, our community, and our city.”
